We see Juliet preparing to leave the life she knew to join Mittelos.She says goodbye to her sister, who is expecting a baby and recovering from cancer.At the airport, she speaks to Richard and Ethan about the trip ahead.They give her some orange juice and a drug that knocks her out.She initially resists it.She is willing to sign all the release forms about keeping her work and location secret, but won’t take the tranquilizer drug.Richard talks to her about the importance of her work to them and the world in general.He also offers to show her things she has never seen before.Of course her ex-husband recently died, so she has no one other than her sister.They promise she can see her in a few months before the baby is born.

We next see her waking up in her berth on some ship or plane, it really is the submarine.She was strapped down by Ethan because the ride is a bit rough at the end of the trip.I am guessing there is some tidal occurance that keeps ships away from the island.Only a storm allowed Desmond to get through and a couple of the losties have drown or nearly so when they went swimming due to the currents.

Ben meets her and welcomes her at the dock.Juliet’s first fertility experiment fails when the patient dies on the operating table.Ben consoles her but Juliet says it is the island that is causing the baby’s not to be born.Juliet’s is out of ideas and wants to go home to see her sister as they promised her.Ben says her sister’s cancer has returned.Juliet is upset that Ben did not tell her.Ben promises to heal the cancer if Juliet will stay and continue her work.She decides to stay (of course she really has no choice since Ben controlls the submarine).We see her later with Goodwin.Juliet ordered Carl to get some x-rays of Ben who was complaining of pain.The xrays showed a tumor.Juliet distrusts Ben, who said he would heal his sister, but then why does he have this condition?This is the same day as the book club as Ben has finished reading Carrie.Not trusting Ben (who would?) Juliet insists on going home now.He will not let her, but he does want to show her something.

Apparently 3 years has passed.The book club is going on when flight 815 flies over and and breaks apart over the island.Ben then takes Juliet to the Flame station where Mikhail is the communications officer.They walk up gingerly on fear that he will mistake Ben and Juliet as hostiles.When they go inside, they see on the monitors the news coverage of the crash of flight 815.They also get a video of Juliet’s sister, alive and well, and playing with what looks like her daughter.The scenes from the first episode of Season 3 are explained.

On the island:

Sayid is suspicious of Juliet.When Jack and Kate go to get firewood,he asks Juliet to explain the actions of the Others (kidnapping, murdering, etc.).Juliet says if she told him the truth he would want to kill her.But Jack protects her.He says he trusts her and that is that.Jack and Juliet talk before they get to the beach.They both know the losties will not easily accept her.Meanwhile Claire wakes up groggy and Charlie offers to take care of the baby while Claire rests.Jack, Kate, Sayid and Juliet return to the losties for a long awaited reunion.Sawyer is relieved to see Kate, but upset when he spies Juliet.“What’s she doing here?, he says.Good question, Sawyer.As they are discussing the events of the last week, Claire faints and starts bleeding.Juliet says she knows why, the treatments she has been giving Claire to protect her from the island are wearing off.She needs more serum.Lucklily Ethan left some behind, before he was killed by Charlie for infiltrating the camp.(BTW, Hurley points this out to Juliet).So trusting her story, Jack allows her to retrieve the drugs.But Sayid and Sawyer follow her.They demand answers to their questions about her role with the Others.But Juliet will not answer them.She points out their rotten lives before the crash and how they have been reluctant to tell all that they did.They let her go.She “cures” Claire, much to the relief of Charlie.Everyone is happy, until we see a flashback that shows that this whole incident was staged by Ben with Juliet as a wiiling participant, so that Juliet could be a spy within the Losties camp.At the end of the show, she ties the last knot holding up her new shelter on the beach with Jack smiling in acceptance.

Thoughts:

I thought Juliet and Ben were up to something from the last episode, but I did not expect Claire’s sickness was part of it.Their scheme explains how Kate and Juliet ended up handcuffed together.

Spectacular and beautiful shots of the island as the group traveled from Otherville to the beach.

Juliet is just as sneeky as Ben.But how did she get that way?One thing we know for sure;she is highly motivated to go home to see her sister.

Juliet wants to be helpful but is also motivated by getting some personal significance bordering on a desire for fame.This was indicated by her drinking of the orange juice and tranquilizer after Richard from Mittelos questioned her reasons for joining them with so many conditions.She trusted them, but they lied about ever letting her go home.

Ben did not want to be called a liar, but of course, he lied about being Henry Gale. He played Jack to get him to do the surgery.He probably set up Kate so that maybe she would get pregnent.He also schemes so many times I wonder if he really is Jacob and is just pretending there is someone else as the higher up.The name Jacob means schemer in the Bible.

It looks like Locke and Jack are slowly giving in to the Others.Now that Juliet has “cured” Claire, Charlie will probably trust her also.Only Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, and Hurley seem to be able to pick up on their schemes.

Kate wanted Jack to confess that he knew about her and Sawyer.I still think Jack may know more about Kate’s past then he is letting on but Jack won’t talk to her.

Questions:

We know how Juliet and presumably most of the Others got to the island, via the submarine.What about Kelvin and Radzinsky?Ben says he was born there.Is he the son of Karen and Gerald DeGroot (founders of Dharma)?Did Kelvin steal Desmond’s boat because Ben would not allow him to leave the island also?

Jack has made Juliet “one of them” based on her desire to get off the island.But at one time he said “do you think I trust you peple?”Does he really trust them, or is Jack just playing along?As a leader, Jack has gotten the losties captured and now has let an Other into the camp to spy on them.

Does Juliet know who killed Goodwin?I guess Cindy could have told her that Anna Lucia killed him.

Did Juliet really find a way for Claire to successful deliver her baby?Since the whole sickness thing was just a ploy, maybe Claire delivered the baby without Juliet’s treatments.Last we saw she had not solved the pregnancy/delivery problem.

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3 Responses

This episode supposedly reveals things from the first season, about Ethan and Claire’s kidnapping. According to Juliet, Ethan was “saving” Claire by injecting her because otherwise she would die before she gave birth. This sort of makes sense with what happened.
But Juliet was obviously lying to Jack. It seems like Claire’s illness was controlled in a way, so what was Ethan really doing with the injections? Were the Others thinking way far ahead by put something into Claire so they could manipulate the situation later?

J,
I believe you are on to something. I think the original set of injections were done by Ethan with a formula from Juliet. I am not sure they are effective (at least not on the island). But Juliet believes her treatments helped her sister in some way. Speaking of Ethan, I wonder if he put the implant into Claire when she was held hostage at the medical hatch.